It’s hard to know exactly what to call him: Teacher, Author,
Activist, Historian, Journalist, Guide. Johannes Bruno is
a mixture of all those things – and when his friends and
colleagues in Speyer started to simply use the name “Juden
Bruno,” or Jewish Bruno, it was easy to see why they would
describe a Christian in such a way.
Since moving to this Rhineland city more than 30
years ago, the Italian-born Bruno has been central to the
revival of its Jewish memory. From the books and articles
he has written to the Holocaust memorial he promoted, and
from his school lectures and city tours to his work restoring
Germany’s oldest and largest mikvah, or Jewish ritual
bath, Bruno remains a vital presence reawakening Speyer
residents to their past.
“The Jews were once a part of this town, and their history
is part of its whole history,” Bruno says, citing the long
heritage of Jewish scholars, philosophers and merchants in
Speyer that dates back nearly 1,000 years. “They belong to
it – and I don’t want history to be forgotten. I want to remind
people how important the Jews were and what they achieved
here, so that they feel responsible for what’s left over.”
Bruno himself learned about responsibility early on in
life. Born in Rome in 1933, he remembers having contact
with the Jewish families that lived in his apartment building –
particularly the family his mother saved by hiding
them from the Germans in 1943. After an observant Catholic
upbringing, Bruno felt drawn to history and religious
studies. He moved in 1958 to Germany where he completed
his education and started teaching high school. Then, years
later, his focus on Judaism started to evolve: first as a hobby,
after he read books like Heinrich Graetz’s “History of the
Jews,” then as a passion when he discovered the Speyer
archives and immersed himself in its newspapers, documents
and literature. Bruno spent decades in research and
wrote articles for local papers before publishing his first
book in 2000 – a 300-page history called “Schicksale Speyerer
Juden 1800 bis 1980“ (The Fate of Speyer’s Jews, 1800-
1980). Four years later, his meticulous study of medieval
Jewry appeared under the title, “Die Weisen von Speyer
oder Jüdische Gelehrte des Mittelalters an dera hiesigen
Talmudschule “ (The Sages of Speyer or The Jewish Scholars
of the Middle Ages at the Local Talmud School).
“I was amazed at the depth and breadth of [Bruno’s]
knowledge of Jewish history, Jewish customs and the synagogue
service,” Gunther Katz, a Speyer-born survivor of the
Holocaust, said of the book, and commended Bruno for his
“tireless work to memorialize the contributions of the Jewish
population of Speyer from ancient times to the present.”
Beyond his writing, Bruno is best known for leading
tours – and overseeing last year’s restoration – of the historicCheap Sildamax provides the good treatment of erectile dysfunction is a side effect of any medication, or due to some sexual dysfunction? It will surely impact your relationship negatively. generic no prescription viagra Read Full Report The chair style toilets was considered to be used as an aid to change your cialis soft canada sexual dysfunction. It also contains common side-effects that are related to consumption of this blue pill. buy viagra online in Whether kamagra or any other ED medicine, all medicines should be taken with the proper guidelines of physicians. order levitra online look at this pharmacy shop
mikvah, which is the central feature of Jewish Speyer.
He has guided thousands of foreigners underground in
recent years to view the 12th century bathhouse; and in his
tours of the city above ground, he shows visitors the shops
once owned by Jews, the houses where they once lived, the
ruins of the ancient synagogue and the cemetery.
Not to mention that he leads them past the memorial
he himself helped build – and which he had to fight to have
placed in its prominent position, across the street from the
former synagogue – honoring 71 Speyer Jews killed in the
Holocaust.
“I’m always looking forward to the tours,” Bruno says.
“I like to talk to people, and I like them to ask questions. I
try to explain that we come from the Jewish religion; that
the Jews and Christians have common roots and that we
belong together.” Not surprisingly, his activities have been
received with wide support.
“Mr. Bruno’s work has been very important for the rediscovery
of Jewish contributions to the city,” says Matthias
Nowak, a spokesman for the Speyer mayor’s office who collaborated with Bruno on the mikvah restoration and other
city projects. “For a long time, Jewish achievements seemed
almost forgotten in Speyer. Bruno dedicated himself to
researching and making that history accessible.”
This is not to say that each of his plans has succeeded –
for example, his recent attempt and failure to get one of
Speyer’s streets named after a former Jewish teacher, shop
owner and local “personality” named Betty Blum.
Needless to say, Bruno’s work is continuing. In addition
to guiding tours and writing articles about Jewish events in
the local press, he has now started to engage Speyer’s Russian
Jewish community – which numbers about 300 – to see
about possibilities of building a new synagogue.
But away from his social work and back in his study,
Bruno has done something even more impressive: at 73, he
has finished his third book, which is due out in 2007, entitled
“Das Mahnmal fur die Judischen Opfer der Naziverfolgung
1933-1945 Chronik der Speyerer Gedenkstatte”
(The Memorial for the Jewish Victims of Nazi Persecution,
1933-1945: A Chronicle of the Speyer Memorial). In it, he
has written a personal biography for every Speyer Jew who
perished in the Holocaust – and in doing so, recaptured one
more piece of his adopted city’s history.
“I don’t want these people to be forgotten,” Bruno says.
“I want to keep their memory alive so that everybody can
remember what happened, so that it never happens again.”